Independent Desborough group ready for early election

Yesterday the ruling Conservative group resigned en masse after claims of bullying and abuse.

The shock news means just two councillors remain with all council business suspended, more than a year before the next planned elections.

But the leader of Independents for Desborough says they will be ready for any inevitable elections.

Cllr Gil Holmes said: “I hope that we can get a bunch of independent people elected to best serve the people of Desborough and yes, we are ready for that.

“We have 10 candidates.”

Cllr Holmes, who was only recently elected, said he did not hear of the resignations from the council himself but from a phone call from BBC Northampton.

He added that he was ‘surprised’ by the reasons the Tories gave and that he had not seen any bullying first-hand.

He said: “I am quite surprised that they have taken these steps.

“It’s quite shocking really if they feel that that’s the level of abuse that has been levelled at them.

“People have shouted ‘shame’ at meetings but I’ve certainly not seen any abuse myself.”

Yesterday, a Kettering Council spokesman said a notice of election seeking nominations to fill the vacancies will be the first stage of the next process.

Cllr Holmes said everybody must now look forward.

He said: “What’s done is done and I think we have much bigger problems to worry about.

“We might lose the library and there are some huge developments around the town that we will need to be involved in.”